commodity certification

3.4

"I agree that the population rebels against the law."

Fidel Bafilemba (witness and expert, Bukavu) is the regional manager of the „Enough Project“ which controls the application of the „Dodd-Frank Act“ in Eastern Congo. He is a driving force in the banishment of the militias from the mineral trade in this region. Critical voices consider him and his organization as a lobby of the US economic leaders.

"Eastern Congo was an Eldorado for national and international actors during the war."

Christoph Vogel (witness and expert, Berlin) researches the cooperation between transnational regulation and the local mining sector in Eastern Congo as a part of his PhD in political Geograph at the University of Zürich and at the Congo Research Group at the New York University.

"The big companies will leave us a soil without resources."

Prince Kihangi (member of the jury, Bukavu) is a lawyer and one of the leading experts on the governance of natural resources in the Great Lakes region. He is the spokesman of the civil association of Walikale (province of North Kivu). Therefore he takes part in all negotiations between the villagers, the government and the big companies from this region. He is considered to be one of the harshest critics of the Dodd-Franck Act.

"If the government is corrupt, the corporations will not be able to help us with industrialization either."

Prince Kihangi (member of the jury, Bukavu) is a lawyer and one of the leading experts on the governance of natural resources in the Great Lakes region. He is the spokesman of the civil association of Walikale (province of North Kivu). Therefore he takes part in all negotiations between the villagers, the government and the big companies from this region. He is considered to be one of the harshest critics of the Dodd-Franck Act.

"The measures to improve mining have ultimately led to fraud."

Zacharie Bulakali (expert) is an expert in artisanal and industrial mining in the DR Congo. He acts as a liaison officer between the local civil society organizations and the Congolese mining authorities. He heads various research projects in the Great Lakes region.